


I Love Playing Hard To Get

by miss_grey



Series: What We Do In The Dark [3]
Category: Band of Brothers
Genre: Blood Drinking, F/M, M/M, Slow Burn, Supernatural AU - Freeform, Vampires, hunter carwood lipton, hunter dick winters, vampire nix
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-22
Updated: 2019-05-22
Packaged: 2020-03-09 11:52:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18916438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miss_grey/pseuds/miss_grey
Summary: Okay, so maybe things weren't going the way Nix wanted with Dick (besides the whole Dick being a hunter and Nix being a vampire thing.)  Nix decides he needs a new strategy.





	I Love Playing Hard To Get

**Author's Note:**

> Seriously, y'all, I'm having way too much fun here.

 

 

Nix loved New York.  Or at least, he used to.  There was always something to do, people to meet.  He loved the crush of the crowds and even the constant smoke and grime held a sort of rebellious charm for him.  Even today, he could look at the city and see what it had been like in 1919, the year he was turned into…this.  He wouldn’t be maudlin about it though.  There was no sense, after all.  It wasn’t like Nix had made good use of the life he’d had then, anyway.  His stint in the army was perhaps the most useful contribution he’d made, but after the War was over, he’d gone back to his life of sloth and excess—just enough to continually disappoint his parents (in the same way that he now disappointed his coven.)  But it had been easy to drop off the map as a man, and find a nice little speakeasy to lounge in—plenty of alcohol, plenty of women (and men), plenty of people willing to be his friend for at least a night.  Now, his desires were mostly the same, even if the details had changed.

Nix loved New York as a vampire because he could lose himself amidst the buildings and throngs of natives and tourists.  He could still visit places he’d liked, if he wanted, or he could discover somewhere new.  Before his recent… reformation, as it were, he’d loved New York because there were so many people that no one would bother to look for.  In a city as big as New York, no one noticed when a single person went missing.  There were always more murders than incentive or drive to solve them. 

Nix would like to be able to say that he’d been noble—that he’d preyed only on the wicked and cruel—but that would be a lie.  Vampire Nix was the same as human Nix—lazy and entitled, and he hadn’t summoned the effort to do something as stressing as that—not when he’d been able to surround himself with beautiful people and beautiful things, and do nothing of real consequence.  He’d always been rather useless.

Now, he licked his lips and sat back from the trembling blonde—Jamie, Jenny?—and lit a cigarette.  The woman lifted her fingers to the puncture on her neck and her eyes widened slightly.  “Oh my God,” she muttered, “you really did it.”  The other club patrons paid them no mind in their secluded corner.

Nix took a drag on his cigarette then blew the smoke to the side.  “I did, just like we talked about.  How do you feel?”

“May I?”  The woman reached for the cigarette and Nix passed it over.  She took a couple contemplative puffs then handed it back.  “I feel like I’m drunk.”

Nix smirked.  “It’s great, isn’t it?”

She cast him a cautious smile and lowered her hand from her neck.  The wound would heal soon enough.  “And you?  How does…doing that….  How do you feel?”

Nix chuckled.  “Like I’m drunk too.  Can’t beat it.  Best feeling in the world.”  _Almost,_ his traitorous brain corrected.  And suddenly, Nix didn’t have the patience to play out the rest of the evening.  “Look, I had a really good time tonight, but it’s getting late.  Can I get you a cab?”

The woman eyed him warily for a moment before nodding.  “Are all…. _you know…_ like this?”

Nix snorted.  “No, sweetheart, most of us are not.  I’m not one to tell a grown woman what to do, especially after you just made my night, but maybe… take care who you pick up.  Especially in the city.”

She nodded.  “Alright.”  And Nix had no idea whether she’d take his advice or not, but it wasn’t his problem and he didn’t plan on seeing her again.

Once she was deposited safely into the back of a cab, he made his way three blocks north to his townhouse. 

The place was dark when he got in, and part of him wanted to be contrary and leave the lights off—creature of darkness, wasn’t he?—but he had some reading to do before he turned in.  And with that nice sip of healthy young blood pumping through his veins, he figured he might as well get started.

Okay, so he might have been slightly… _upset_ about how his last meeting with Dick had gone.  Definitely not how he’d planned it.  But this dalliance wasn’t some piss poor attempt at revenge—it was just dinner—and he wasn’t going to give up that easily.  Dick _had_ met with him, after all.  And even though he’d said he wouldn’t meet Nix again, Nix was confident that he’d be able to entice him.  One way or another.  Hence Nix’s foray into the city.

Nix was nothing if not determined and he’d set his cold, dead heart on getting close to Dick Winters (who had been even sexier the second time around.)  On one hand, Nix already had a head start in that Dick knew what he was and had reason to want to be near Nix as well (to kill him, of course, but all relationships had their problems, right?)  On the other hand, well… Nix was a vampire.  Dick was a hunter.  It was all very poetic, but not very practical.  And while Nix didn’t care one hoot about practicality, he knew that a fine, upstanding man with Dick’s credentials most certainly did.

So, Nix had done some more digging.  He’d found pieces of Dick’s past, but not enough to satisfy him.  And the more he’d looked into the supernatural community, the more he came across Dick’s name.  Now, Dick wasn’t some celebrity hunter—not by a long shot.  But he wasn’t entirely unknown, either.  And the stories of him seemed to circle through the underground, mostly rumors— _heard he took out a vamp’s nest in Ohio,_ and _a wolf I know said he’d seen him in Philly a few months ago_ and _guy’s pretty good, but he’s not invincible.  Someday he’ll get his._   Which was quite enough for Nix.  He knew, of course, that Dick must be a target.  That some monster out there had it out for him.  Which was why the news he’d heard earlier had surprised him.  He hadn’t even been looking for it.  Simply enjoying a smoke at the bar, listening to two other vampires shoot the shit, when one of them had bent close to the other and said “Rumor has it someone took out a hit on Carwood Lipton.”

The second vampire had narrowed his eyes.  “Who’s that?”

“Some hunter fuck.  Heard he got on the wrong side of the Chicago coven.”

“Well,” the second vampire said, “good riddance to him, then.  Goddamn hunters.  They’re everywhere.”  He took a gulp of his beer.  “Any idea who took the contract?”

The first vampire actually paused, and looked over his shoulder, paranoid.  He lowered his voice so that no one but another supernatural creature might here.  “I heard it was a demon.”

The second vampire whistled lowly.  “Well, he’s as good as gone, then.”  Then he raised his glass and clinked it against his friend’s. 

After that, Nix had done what he could to find out who might’ve put the hit on Lipton, or why, or who had taken the contract, but he’d come up with nothing.

So now, sitting there alone in his townhome, he knew that he’d have to get more involved.  Dangerously involved.  And for what?  Was this just boredom?  Or was his red-headed hunter really worth it?  _Why_ was he worth it?  Nix had come across hundreds of pretty faces in his time, but this wasn’t that.  This was something else.  He just couldn’t figure it out.

Still, he had to do something.  Or at least, he decided he would.  And a phone call wouldn’t cut it.  He had more research to do.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Dick leaned against the peeling wallpaper in the living room of the dilapidated house and wiped the sweat and cobwebs from his brow.  Beside him, Lip folded and slid to the floor, his head sinking between his knees.  It had been a long couple days.

“You alright?”  Dick huffed.

“Yeah,” Lipton panted, “I’m good.”

“That was a close one,” Dick said, glancing down at his friend.

Lipton glanced up, rubbing his chest in slow circles where the ghost had attempted to rip his heart out.  “You’re telling me,” he muttered.  “I feel like I could sleep for a week.”

“Mmmm,” Dick hummed, tipping his head back.  “Sounds good.  We can get a good night’s sleep then report in to Harry in the morning with the news.”

“Yeah, alright.”

Dick glanced down at his friend again.  “Need a hand up?”

Lip huffed, but raised his eyes.  “Yeah, probably.  That lady really knocked me on my ass.”

Dick chuckled.  “Well it’s a good thing she’s been salted and burned then.  Come on, let’s get back.”  He reached down and helped haul Lipton to his feet.  They were about 30 minutes out from their motel, and Dick figured he had just enough energy left to get them back before he passed out.  The simple salt and burn that Harry had sent them to deal with had turned out to be two ghosts instead of one.  And the more violent of the two had shoved her hand into Lip’s chest right after her partner had slammed Dick into the wall.  They were both feeling a bit worse for wear right now.

They folded themselves gently into the car and then hit the road.  The way back to the motel was quick—the roads were pretty clear in rural Pennsylvania at 3am—and they found themselves pulling into the parking lot in just under 27 minutes—Dick had allowed himself to speed, but just a little.

He was so exhausted it took him a second to realize that there was a dark shadow leaning against the wall next to their room door.  “Lip,” he muttered, nodding his head toward the shadow.  “Look sharp.”  Dick grabbed his pistol (still loaded with rock salt, damn it), and a silver stake, and exited the car.  He made his way cautiously toward their room, Lipton at his side.

About ten feet away, Dick realized who the shadow belonged to.  “Nix,” he said, surprised, the name coming to his tongue unbidden, and then more suspiciously, “what are you doing here?”

The shadow pushed away from the wall and Lip tensed next to Dick.  “Looking for you,” the vampire drawled.

“Well, you’ve found me,” Dick said, with a terrible cold feeling filling his stomach up.  “How?”

Nix snorted.  “You’re not that hard to find, honestly.  Which is what I’m here about, actually.”

Dick frowned, confused now.  Wasn’t this vampire trying to kill him?  Or something?  “Okay…?”

Nix’s dark eyes found Dick’s, and Dick shuddered, acutely aware once again that vampires had the power to hypnotize their victims.  But Nix didn’t hold Dick’s eyes. Instead, he flicked them to Lip, where they lingered for a long moment, before darting back to Dick.  “Someone put a hit out on your partner.  I heard it through the grapevine.  Thought you’d want to know.”

The parking lot got suddenly, eerily, quiet.

“What?”  Lip murmured.

Nix fixed Lipton in his gaze.  “That’s right.  And before you ask who, I don’t know.  I just know the contract’s been issued.  And rumor has it a demon took it up.”  Nix took a folder out from under his arm.  “Here’s everything I know about it.”

Lip eyed the folder warily, not wanting to reach any closer to the vampire, obviously. 

“What’s the catch?”  Dick asked, clutching the silver stake even tighter.

Nix looked him up and down briefly before shrugging.  “There isn’t one.”  Then he shoved the folder toward Lip and the other man took it.

Dick ground his teeth, concern and confusion warring in his heart.  “Then why did you even bother?”

Nix chuckled, dark eyes glinting in the meager lights of the parking lot.  “Guess I was bored.”  Then he turned and walked toward a turquoise Chevelle convertible sitting conspicuously in the parking lot, climbed in, and called “See you, Red!”  Then he took off, engine roaring obscenely in the otherwise quiet night.

Dick squinted after the vampire, supremely confused, and concerned that a vampire who apparently had an obsession with Dick had been able to find him so easily.  He was about to comment on it, when he turned to find Lip staring down at the papers in the file, his face having gone even paler in the sickly light.  Lip raised his eyes to Dick’s, and, very succinctly, breathed “Well, fuck.”

**Author's Note:**

> A comment is worth a thousand kudos. Please tell me what you think--I thrive off of it. And feel free to come stalk my tumblr. I'm @realhunterswearplaid.


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